"A young couple out on a weekend getaway hoping to mend their failing relationship. However, the seemingly innocent weekend turns dark when the man discovers a videotape chronicling the events of murder in his very own hotel room from years before."
- Breaking Glass Pictures
What starts as a trip to relax and clear the mind, becomes anything but that.
The leads, Gabe Fazio and Augie Duke, who play Billy and Lisa, respectively give good performances, with a few hiccups. Some of the looks and glances they gave each other were confusing and made it hard to pinpoint their intention. However, it's this pretty easy to overlook these flaws when you look at the rest of the film and their performances.
The pacing of the movie may be called slow by some, but I feel "deliberate" is a better way to describe it. The way seemingly impossible things are sprinkled throughout Billy and Lisa's stay is a great way to give the audience a chance to watch Billy slowly unravel, as well as see how Lisa responds to his concerns. It is much more effective this way, giving Billy and the viewer time to process and possibly rationalize what happened, and then to have something else seemingly impossible happen, making it even harder to not think that something unusual is going on.
Another aspect of the film that impressed me was that the film seemed to have a clear influence from The Shining without ripping it off. It takes place in a hotel and deals with things that might be supernatural, but aside from that and a few similar shots, that's where the similarities end.
There is a scene where Billy and Lisa hear a noise so Billy goes to see what the noise was. The piece of music that plays while he is in the hallway was my favorite piece of music in the movie. It was haunting, yet intriguing, matching Billy's feelings at that moment - scared, but oddly compelled to find out what the noise was.
I found it incredibly out of character for Lisa to not go with Billy to get her phone from the restaurant. This is inconsistent with how she is portrayed as being addicted to her phone in all the other scenes involving her and her phone. There was also no explanation given in the movie as to why she did not go with Billy.
A small detail, but one that did momentarily take me out of the movie. Speaking of Lisa and her phone, that was something I feel the film left unresolved. Billy becomes suspicious that Lisa may be cheating on him, or at the very least dishonest about who she is talking to on the phone. It is central to quite a few of their discussions, yet we never find out if she was being truthful or not. Granted, much like at the end of the film where it does not seem to matter to Billy anymore, it doesn't matter overall, but that story thread was still explored and touched on earlier, only to have been left hanging.
The ending of the film may polarize a lot of people - you're either going to hate it, or realize that it actually fits the movie very well. It ends just before resolving the question of whether Billy has imagined all the oddities he has seen, or if they have really been happening. The more you think about it, the more suitable it becomes. Looking back at the movie and trying to tally things in favor of the oddities being real and things in favor of them being imagined by Billy, it can be concluded they were about the same in number. It fits in perfectly with the film's ambiguous ending.
Exit 0 a solid film; it just needs to tighten up a few things. I would have preferred the confusing glances to be left out or changed, resolve Lisa and who she was talking to on the phone or leave it out, and have her go with Billy to get her phone. Other than those things, which are admittedly minor flaws but still noticeable, it's an enjoyable film. I am excited to see more from the writers and directors, as well as the lead actors of the film.
Score: ★★★½
Exit 0 is available on DVD and VOD on March 10th, 2020. Watch the trailer below:
